Insanity of War and Escalation

The current “offensive” by Israel on the Gaza strip has all the earmarks of the inherent insanity of war and escalation. The euphemism of a “military offensive” does not truly mask the fact that it is a deliberate massacre. As such, it has no justification. That by no means suggests that indiscriminate rocket fire by Hamas into Israeli towns is justified either. The point is that NEITHER is justified. Equally clear is that neither action is likely to yield any positive impact or move the sides anywhere nearer a solution to an age old conflict. Objectively, it is simply senseless bloodletting and venting for its own sake. Insanity of the first water.

Some topics are difficult to discuss because of emotion and intransigent views. Mention abortion or race and discussion quickly becomes irrational. The same seems true of any critical examination of Israeli – Palestinian conflict. Most want to jump to partisan sides and engage in unproductive defensive illogic. Israel deserves to live in pace with its neighbors. That is a given. Palestinian people deserve to have their own truly autonomous state, a place where they can live in peace and be able to prosper without restraint from an overseer like Israel. That too is a given. The quandary is how both objectives can be attained. Massive airstrikes that kill dozens hundreds of people and dozens of innocent women and children is not a step in that direction. Neither is indiscriminate lobbing of rockets into the backyard of your neighbor to create fear and panic.

The public must be released from the bondage of irrational fealty to the Israeli cause that seeks to rationalize and justify any action, regardless how ill conceived, hate based and inhumane in impact. To allow critical discussion is actually in the best interest of Israeli people and the world. A responsible parent would not sit and justify a child taking a rifle to school to kill and maim hundreds of school children, and then justify it by saying that the child was being bullied by other students. Yes, the bullying was wrong and should be stopped. But the actions of shooting and maiming many innocent people, and even those who were bullying is not rational, moral or justifiable. Likewise, we should not be expected to rationalize and excuse any and every action by Israel toward the provocations by Palestinians.

Israel has imposed a chokehold on the Palestinian people for many years, long before Hamas was elected as the Gaza Strip representative. Indeed, it could be argued that the single strongest reason for the rise of Hamas in the area has been Israeli government oppression. The Israeli government has treated the Gaza Strip like a Nazi Germany Jewish Ghetto, using cheap Palestinian labor for Israeli backed projects, but strictly limiting any food or resources available to the civilian population. When irritated, with or without some provocation, the Israelis have responded with disproportionate force and violence to exact collective punishment.

The sad observation is that violence and cruel inhumanity begets the same. Having learned the bitter impact of a policy of subjugation and genocide under Hitler, Israel now uses those same tactics, albeit modernized, against the Palestinians. It is not unlike the abused child who becomes the abusive parent. The main difference between the Israelis and the Nazi storm troopers is that the Israelis have the power now and in Hitler’s Germany they did not. Yet even in the Ghettos and prison camps, Jews formed a resistance. Is it reasonable to expect that Palestinians would not resist?

Although Israel and its apologists may try to characterize the current actions as “defensive” action, that is transparently false. Less than five Israelis have been hurt or killed by the rockets fired by Hamas, while more than 300 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli action. The supporters of such action argue that massive retaliation will stop the Hamas rockets. But that has not and will never work, except by the implementation of the Israeli’s “final solution” of extermination of all Palestinians. As long as Israel continues to target hospitals, refugee camps and universities and kill civilians (at least 51 women and children, some as young as a few months old at last count, as “collateral damage” of course) in the holding pen of the Gaza Strip, more martyrs will be created and the effect is exponential.

While Israel and its apologists decry as “irresponsible” the statements of Iran’s Ahmadinejad about “wiping Israel from the face of the earth,” Israel proceeds with a similar strategy without openly declaring it regarding Palestinians. In so doing, Israel is losing moral authority for its behavior and supporters for its cause. The enlightenment that came to Gen. Ariel Sharon came too late or his death came too soon. In any event, his legacy was too short lived.

As long as Israel continues the insane game of “shooting fish in a barrel” that it apparently enjoys playing with the lives of Palestinians, the feud will continue. Moreover, such senseless escalation has spillover effects. Clearly, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West bank are no match for the Israeli military machine armed with nuclear weapons, advanced weaponry and telemetry and US backing. As a result, the predictable response of Palestinian supporters is to target any Israeli anywhere in the world. That is the only way to counteract the imbalance of military power, terrorism. So the Israeli actions are actually breeding terrorism throughout the world, a fact that should concern all of us.

The more likely truth is that violence will subside only when a way to address the daily oppression and continuous threat of extinction that Israel is visiting upon Palestinians. There will certainly still be vengeful feelings on both sides. That cannot be helped, given the history of the blood feud. And neither side can completely control individual acts of revenge and terrorism. The policies of terrorism and oppression can, however, be undone and abandoned. Healing can only begin when the basic underlying causes of the hatred are removed and the fuel to the fire is abated. The insane notion that “might makes right” has been proven false throughout the ages and is equally true in this case. Unless Israel is prepared to completely adopt its own “final solution” and exterminate all Palestinians and their supporters, and bear the consequences of such a strategy, this course of disproportionate retaliation must stop. They can kill 100 so-called “security forces” in the Gaza Strip, but killing one innocent child undoes all benefit of the attack. Therein lies the insanity of war and escalation.

[See a subsequent article posted 12/30/2008 at http://www.truthout.org/123008A]